The subject matter herein relates generally to an electrical connector having signal contacts and associated ground shields.
Some electrical connector systems utilize receptacle and header connectors to interconnect two circuit boards, such as a motherboard and daughtercard. When the connectors are mated, the circuit boards may be arranged parallel to one another. Such connector systems can be complex and difficult to manufacture.
The connectors can have ground shields that are designed to shield signal contacts from other signal contacts within the connectors. During a mating operation, the ground shields of the header connector engage the ground shields of the receptacle connector and the signal contacts of the header connector engage the signal contacts of the receptacle connector. The connectors may be fully mated relative to one another when respective housings of the two connectors engage one another to prohibit further movement in the mating direction. The connectors are partially mated to one another when the ground shields and signal contacts of the two connectors are engaged but the housings do not engage one another. The connectors may be partially mated to one another when, due to various aggregated tolerances in the electrical system or device, the two circuit boards are too far apart from each other to allow the two connectors to fully mate to one another. For example, the two circuit boards may be fixed in place on different mounts of a chassis, such that the distance between the two circuit boards may not be precisely controlled due to tolerances between various components in the system.
Although partial mating of the connectors does provide an electrically conductive signal path between the circuit boards, the signal quality and/or strength may be degraded relative to two connectors that are fully mated. For example, when the connectors are partially mated, an air gap may exist along the mating interface between the front ends of the respective housings of the connectors. The air gap may cause an impedance spike along the signal contacts that causes some of the energy to reflect back to the source instead of being transmitted between the connectors. The impedance spike may have a greater detrimental effect with higher signal transmission speeds, such as speeds over 10 Gb/s.
A need remains for an electrical connector having enhanced ground shielding that improves electrical performance by controlling the impedance at the mating interface.